Meet Gary, who lives in Milton Keynes.
Gifted at enjoying life
Gary loves slapstick humour – he properly belly laughs when people fall over and loves noises that are sensory, especially slapping noises.
We wanted to find out about places where these things happen and it’s OK to enjoy them rather than laughing at people’s misfortune! Someone in the team came up with the idea of wrestling and we bought a DVD to see if Gary liked it.
This provoked some major belly laughing from Gary, who enjoyed it so much.
How about a live wrestling match?
We wondered what next, could we see if he could watch live wrestling?
We went online to see if there was anything local. We found a local venue and went and looked at it. We spoke to the organisers to get a sense of the atmosphere and they reassured us it was a welcoming place to be, so we booked tickets.
Infectious laughter
When Gary laughed, everyone laughed because he puts his whole self into his laughter.
He brings a lot of joy and fun to everyone. He loves it and loves the wrestling. It’s not just the falling over for him now, it’s the whole atmosphere and the sense of being with others who are also enjoying it. You can see the pleasure in his eyes and his smiles and his shouts of laughter.
Getting to know each other
There’s a core audience that attends the wrestling. They are starting to get to know Gary and someone said:
It is really lovely to see him being so happy and I thrive on his excitement, it makes the whole day more fun for me.
Gary is challenging people’s beliefs about social care and helping the people he meets to become more inclusive.
More recently Gary invited his housemate Julia along. She loved it too so Gary is sharing his passion and making others happy.
What next?
We have had the idea about trying ice hockey thinking about those sensory noises that Gary may enjoy – watch this space!
Everyone Everywhere is weekly
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